ABSTRACT
Coal development has gained much attention in recent years as the nation has become more and more concerned with establishing a comprehensive energy policy. The abundant coal resources in the western states are a critical element in the effort to achieve national energy self-sufficiency. But integral to consideration of western coal development is consideration of that development’s potential impacts on western water resources, alternative uses of the land, and more broadly on the aesthetic qualities of the environment–impacts that ultimately will affect the people, fish, and wildlife of the region. As more demands are made upon the region’s limited water supply, the decisions regarding the allocation of that supply become more difficult. In the arid West, where mining and the actual processing of coal would occur, conflicts already exist among various water interests including energy, agriculture, land development, and fish and wildlife. The purpose of this paper is to examine the potential impacts on fish, trout in particular, of changing land use patterns resulting from surface coal mining in the Yampa River Basin.
